Proposal for Hub status
Berrington Parish Council was notified by Shropshire Council in the middle of July 2018 that Shropshire Council had made a mistake last October when the reclassification of some parishes as Hubs was done. All those parishes who were being reclassified were told in October 2017.
As a result of that many parishes challenged the methodology of the classification process and this resulted in all parishes being looked at again. They have decided that Berrington should now be classified as a Hub. The implications of that are that Crosshouses will be expected to take some development.
The Chairman and clerk of the Parish Council called an Extraordinary Parish Council meeting which was open to all residents ,as are all parish council meetings. Liam Cowden was present to explain the rationale of their decision and the criteria and notes from the meeting are attached below.
This meeting was well attended by residents who asked many pertinent questions and these were answered by Liam Cowden.
There will be a consultation on this , which will take place from October 2018 until December 2018 for residents and the Parish Council alike to challenge and put forward their objections. The Local Plan will then be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate for scrutiny and they will hold a public enquiry when local people will have a chance to show the strength of their objections.
The Parish Council are challenging the decision as they do not believe the methodology is correct. However the Parish Council have agreed for their Planning Committee to meet with Liam Cowden to discuss this further in a closed and confidential meeting.
Residents will be kept informed as and when we are able to release information.
- Rationale for the proposed change in status of Cross Houses;
In the currently adopted Local Plan, Crosshouses is designated as a settlement in the countryside in relation to Policy CS5 of the Shropshire Council Core Strategy (2011) which states: “New development will be strictly controlled in accordance with national planning policies protecting the countryside”. Policy CS5 restricts housing development in the countryside to keyworker accommodation or affordable housing.
The current Local Plan review seeks to extend the plan period from 2016 to 2036. The review process has revisited the Settlement Hierarchy for Shropshire. The Council adopted a methodology to objectively determine those settlements that should become Community Hubs which are defined as follows:
Community Hubs:
Settlements which have a ‘sufficient population’ to ‘maintain a range of services; facilities; and employment. In these settlements, ‘appropriate sustainable development should contribute to the retention and enhancement of these existing services; facilities and employment. It should also support the provision of new housing to meet local needs; services, facilities and employment opportunities.
The defined Community Hubs were published for consultation in the Preferred Scale and Distribution of Development Document in October 2017.The threshold for defining a Community Hub is that the settlement;
· Should have a population of more than 100 persons; or
· A dwelling stock of more than 50 dwellings; and
· The scoring applied to the services and facilities should be equal to or greater than 48 points.
In response to the Consultation in October 207, the authority sought to confirm the scoring of settlements above and below the scoring threshold in the Settlement Hierarchy Methodology. The assessment of Crosshouses was undertaken a second time and the error in assessment is illustrated in the table attached. The correction to the assessment of Crosshouses will now define the settlement as a Community Hub.
Liam apologised for the error as we should have been notified last October we were to be allocated Community Hub status. There had been an error in their calculations.
He said that the decision was not “Fait accompli” and that the community would have an opportunity to challenge this decision.